Lack of joined-up care due to a fragmented and barrier-ridden health system is putting Hinckley and Bosworth patients at risk according to an independent report.

The six-month review, which looked at all areas of NHS services across the county, was prompted by an earlier study which found the Leicester Royal Infirmary to be one of the worst performing hospitals in the country for emergency admission.

Conducted by ‘troubleshooter’ Dr Ian Sturgess, a former senior consultant geriatrician, the report said there were transfer and assessment delays for patients and communication gaps between services.

Leicester Royal Infirmary

More than 180 recommendations were given and Dr Strugess, who has helped improve more than 135 emergency care systems across the UK and overseas, also called for more patients to be treated at home.

As well as looking at the three main hospitals Dr Sturgess also spent time with clinicians and staff in primary care, community hospitals, mental health services, out-of-hours and NHS 111, urgent care centres and social care teams between this May and November.

Professor Azhar Farooqi, chairman of Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) on behalf of the three CCGs representing Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, said: “The report identifies areas where we can improve and it is reassuring that we are already working on many of them, alongside our colleagues at Leicester’s Hospitals and the organisations which provide health and social care.”

The December 2013 report which inspired the audit recognised the poor performance of the LRI in emergency care, highlighting how many patients waited much longer than the national four-hour wait standard.

NHS

A year on and the emergency department is still continually swamped with more patients than it can cope with.

One weekend in December more than 1,200 patients needed admitting into the A&E at LRI - about 10% higher than the same time last year causing a shortage of beds.

And a recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) survey ranked the LRI in the bottom 10 of 142 trusts based on patient satisfaction.

The trust is attempting to resolve the issue and is planning a £48 million A&E expansion and hospital chiefs have stressed changes have already been implemented.

Dr Kevin Harris, medical director at Leicester’s Hospitals, said: “It’s encouraging to see in the opening of his report he recognises there has been some early improvement seen within Leicester’s Hospitals. Nevertheless, we recognise, along with colleagues in the rest of the system, we have much more to do.”

Nine key improvement areas have been identified including improving ambulance turnaround, improving interfacing between the urgent care centre and emergency department at the LRI, improving the capacity of the emergency department and speeding up clinical assessment.